Description: The Empire CM11 Theme is a customization utility for either CyanogenMod ROMs or now for use with the new Paranoid Android ROM beta builds, or any other ROM that has the CM theme engine built in. Empire CM11 skins just about everything inside your device, from the menus, to the icons, wallpapers status bar, insides of apps and more. If you like to customize your device, and have a rooted phone or tablet running one of those two ROMs Empire CM11 can provide you with a whole new skin to all your phones nooks and crannies.
How It Works: First off you’ll want to make sure that your device is rooted. That is first and foremost the key detail with this theme or it will not work. Secondly you have to be running one of the supported ROMs, either CyanogenMod 11, Paranoid Android’s latest beta build, or any ROM with the latest CM11 theme engine built in. If you meet all those requirements than your next step is to download Empire CM11 Theme from the Play Store.
Now that you have the theme installed, you’ll want to head inside your device settings for either your phone or tablet, and scroll to find themes. In the latest Paranoid Android build, the themes menu will be under the “personal”section.
Once you open up themes you’ll see any downloaded and installed themes that you have on your device, just select Empire CM11 Theme and hit apply after you select the portions of the theme you want.
Empire CM11 Theme lets you customize the style, wallpapers, lockscreen wallpapers, icons, ringtones, notifications, alarms, fonts, and boot animations too. It literally themes just about every detail of your device.
Not all apps will have the Empire CM11 theme “colors” applied. Like Facebook or Hangouts for example. A lot of the system apps however will be themed, along with apps like Dropbox, Google Keep, Google Calendar, Play Games etc. However, even though Facebook and Hangouts are not included in the theme itself , Team Blackout designed a dark Hangouts apk specifically for this theme which can be downloaded here, and it goes quite nicely with the look of Empire CM11. A possible “dark” Facebook apk may also be on the way.
Look out for the little details here to appreciate the work done here. The slider bars for things like screen brightness, volumes etc. Even things like the keyboard and navigation bar icons have been redesigned.
Opinion: I have always been a big fan of themes and the ROMs that I usually run personally have had theme engine 90% of the time. After applying the Empire CM11 theme to my latest ROM setup which is the latest beta build of Paranoid Android, the colors, the icons, wallpapers, and all the details appear to have been carefully crafted and are very well designed. The developer put plenty of thought into every inch of this theme. If you like darker colors and dark themed apps than you will love Empire CM11.
Ratings
- Speed (5/5) – There’s not much to say about the speed here because it’s simply a theme for the device, and you don’t actually run it like you would an app or a game. With that said, it doesn’t slow anything down that I’ve noticed.
- Features (5/5) – There is a lot going on with this theme. It skins just about everything with your device right down to the ringtones and notification sounds, even the boot animation. There’s tons to offer the chronic theme junkie.
- Theme (4.5/5) – The theme is well designed and everything looks great. Although I prefer different colors myself, everything within Empire CM11 is done well.
- Overall (4.5/5) – Overall Empire CM11 looks well detailed and everything feels in place. Nothing looks off or just mashed together like with some themes.
Pros
- Tons of themed details like wallpapers, phone style, and icons
- everything is well designed, and plays nice together
- Boot animation
- Dark themed apps
- Works with multiple ROMs as long as the CM theme engine is present
Cons
- Some stuff hard to read with the theme’s font
Conclusion: When it comes to themes for your device, there’s tons of them out there and it can be hard to find one sometimes that pays so much attention to the little details, and has things themed from head to toe. Empire CM11 Theme does just that and immerses your entire device in dark colors, and custom, original design work. The custom wallpapers fit really nicely and the boot animation is really a special little treat. If you’re on the search for a great theme, look no further because Empire CM11 has pretty much everything.